Swedru Municipal 'Bruce Lee' Guards Case Referred To ADR

The Swedru District Court has referred the case of assault of a 17-year old boy by two municipal guards at the Agona West Municipal Assembly to Appropriate Dispute Resolution (ADR).

The two municipal guards together with two others were captured on video recently allegedly assaulting the 17-year old boy, who they accused of stealing.

The referral of the case to ADR followed an appeal by counsel for the accused persons, Frederick Selby, that since the trial started, relatives of the accused persons have reached out to the victim and financially supported them.

He noted that the accused persons had agreed to take care of the medical expenses of the victim so as to ensure the amicable settlement of the case and further pleaded with the court to grant them bail and refer the matter to be settled through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).

The court agreed with counsel, granted the accused persons bail, and subsequently referred the case to the ADR.

However, the court warned that if by May 8, 2019, the next adjourned date the parties had not been able to reach a consensus towards a resolution of the matter, the case would be brought back to court for trial to continue.

The accused persons, Peter Danso, Isaac Ntsiful, Sampson Aikins and Francis Yorke were each granted bail on Wednesday in the sum of ¢10,000 with three sureties each.

Prior to them being granted bail by the court presided over by Mr Isaac Apeatu, the prosecution led by Inspector Chare N. Salia had opposed the bail application by the counsel.

The case has been adjourned to May 8, 2019, for hearing to continue.

Facts

The facts of the case are that the victim, Kwame Teboah is a head porter and lives at Agona Nyakrom whilst the first accused Francis Yorke, was a student and mobile money merchant. Sampson Aikins, the second accused is a baker while the third and fourth accused persons, Peter Danso and Isaac Ntsiful are both guards at the municipal assembly.

On March 21, 2019, Francis Yorke alleged that his mobile phone scratch card worth GHâ‚µ95.00 had been stolen and he informed Sampson Aikins. Aikins suspected the victim, Kwame Teboah to be the one who stole it and went ahead to arrest him.

He stated that Aikins held the victim amidst slapping and took him to the forecourt of the GN Bank branch in Agona Swedru where he made the victim to kneel down for interrogation by himself and Yorke.

While the victim was being interrogated, Peter Danso and Isaac Ntsiful suddenly appeared from behind and Peter Danso gave the victim a terrible kick at the right side of his cheek and Teboah fell down on the ground.

He added that the incident drew the attention of a policewoman who was on duty near the scene and instructed that the victim should be sent to the police station but Ntsiful told the police officer that the victim was his biological brother and that they wanted to help in the amicable settlement of the issue.

He explained that Aikins and Ntsiful continuously subjected the victim to severe beatings for him to speak the truth.

Subsequently, Danso and Ntsiful accused persons stripped the victim naked in search of the alleged missing credit scratch card but nothing was found on him.

He stressed that the accused persons later left the victim to go and a good Samaritan assisted the victim to lodge a complaint at the police station.

Subsequently, the victim was issued with a medical form to seek medical care.

“Three days after the incident, the victim started experiencing severe pains and discharge from the right ear, headache and dizziness as a result of the terrible kick by the third accused person” he pointed out.

After investigations, the accused persons were charged with the offences and arraigned before court.